Old Faithful and the Stupid Geyser

This post was intended to be posted on Monday, August 17.


I got up early this morning in Yellowstone and decided to head up to the Old Faithful area to beat the crowds. Along the way, stopped and took a picture of Kepler Cascades (left). Little did I know that Yellowstone is chock full of these types of rapids and waterfalls.

When I got to Old Faithful and parked my car, I had about thirty minutes until the next eruption, so I decided to hike up to Observation Point, which I had read gave you a good view of the eruption and away from the bleachers full of tourists. It was about 300 feet up, so it was a bit of a hike, but I made it with several minutes to spare. This picture shows the tail end of the eruption. It was the first opportunity I had to ask another person to take my picture. All in all, it was a nice view, but the eruption seemed a bit small from that high and far away, so I decided I would try and take in another one from ground level and amongst the thousands of others.

After Old Faithful, I started wandering through the rest of the geyser basin. Interesting, but I got geysered out pretty quickly. I came across the viewing area for the Grand Geyser, the tallest predictable (yeah, right) geyser in the world. It was predicted to go off at ten plus or minus two hours. I was now 11:15 and it hadn't gone off since early in the morning, so I figured I would have just a short wait. By the appointed hour of noon (ten plus two), nothing but minor eruptions. By 12:20 I had been sitting in the sun with no sunscreen (it was cloudy and twenty nine degrees when I left my campsite), so I decided to give up. Of course, ten minutes after I walked off, it erupted and I could hear the hoots and cheers of the crowd. This picture is the best I could get from where I was at the time. Stupid geyser!

Here's the obligatory shot of Old Faithful at its peak from ground level. After that, I was pretty sunbaked and decided to head back to camp. Ended up taking a nap and not doing a heck of a lot the rest of the day.

On the way back to camp, I crossed the Continental Divide and found this lake perched right on the divide at about 9000 feet covered in lily pads with frogs - not what I would have expected at this elevation. The interesting thing about this tiny lake (Lake Isa) is that water from it flows both east and west (since its on the Divide) and some ends up in the Pacific Ocean and the rest ends up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Black Hills to Yellowstone - August 16

This post was from Sunday August 16. Yellowstone is awesome except when it comes to cell phone and internet service...










Today started off a bit poorly - nothing worse than rolling out of a nice warm sleeping bag at 5:15 in the morning than to step out into a cold 40 degrees and wet. Luckily, I had packed up everything the night before so all I needed to do was get my sleeping bag and pad into the car, take down the tent and wrap up the tarp that I have underneath. All of that went into the car soaking wet, but I figured I could dry them all out when I got to Yellowstone. All in all, a successful exit from the Black Hills by about 5:40am to begin the journey west.

I had been dreading the drive to Yellowstone a bit - 450 miles on top of the 1100 I had already done to get north from Fort Worth. I expected to see some nice scenary along the way, but I never expected to see as much as I did. Never have 450 miles gone so fast. Words can't adequately describe nor can pictures, but I'll do what I can.

After leaving the Black Hills National Forest, you are pretty much into Wyoming already. Eastern Wyoming is pretty with rolling prairies and little unique volcano shaped pillars sticking up from the prairie. Nothing particularly large about these things, but their volcano shape made for an interesting landscape. This area must get a good bit of rain because everything was green. Didn't see too many cows, but this must be awesome grazing land.

I came up over a hill and off in the distance were a set of majestic mountains - too soon to be the Rockies, so I looked them up on the map and they were the Big Horn mountains. After a long and slow climb over these mountains, the decent was really steep with some really beautiful multi-colored rock formations along the way.

An hour or so of rolling prairie later and I rolled into Cody, Wyoming, named after Buffalo Bill Cody of course. It was immediately clear why the town of Cody existed as right in front of me were the mountains of the Shoshone National Forest and Cody stood right at a natural pass through these mountains that followed the Shoshone River. The road followed this river (pictures included) for several miles through some really breathtaking scenary. Once through the mountains, a short bit of flat earth followed before starting to make the ascent into Yellowstone.

Upon entering the park, I was immediately struck by the sign that said my campground (Grant) was 51 miles ahead. Yellowstone is a really, really, big park. I knew it was large, but that distance really struck me and Grant Village is not even on the far west edge of the park. As I entered the park, the rain started again - all day it had been absolutely beautiful and I was hoping for some clear weather after it rained a good bit in the Black Hills, but no. Forecast of 29 degrees with rain and some snow for tonight - doesn't Yellowstone know that its the middle of August? Hope my sleeping bag is sufficient for sub freezing weather. I'd have to go back to the Amazon web site to check that - I never dreamed I would need that in the middle of summer. And, I got to see my first elk, grazing between the road and Lake Yellowstone.

Don't know if I will bother to whip out the cooking gear tonight, since the rain has been pretty persistent. Might have to grab a meal at one of the restaurants here in Grant Village. One thing that I did learn was I lucked out in making a reservation at Grant. Its the only campsite that has a cell tower in the whole of Yellowstone. On top of that, it has coin operated showers - never used one of those before, but I take such quick showers, I might get in and out for a quarter. Last but not least, the campsite attendent told me the local Grizzly (a female) only comes into the camp every five or six days. Since I'm staying three, that gives me a 50/50 chance of being here when the bear decides to visit. Of course, there are over 400 campsites so the odds she'll pick mine are even more remote, but needless to say, I will be sleeping with my bear spray tonight.

All in all, the Black Hills were beautiful and quite unique. From dense pine forests (where the Black comes from), to really cool granite outcroppings, to beautiful rolling green prairies, the Black Hills were unlike anything I had seen before. Since it was my first stop, I can't compare it to anything, but it did have some of the most scenic and cool drives that I have ever experienced. The Needles and Iron Mountain by ways were simply amazing - not only in their beauty but in the engineering that went into building them. I read that the Needles Highway required 250,000 pounds of dynamite to build the road. Oh, and the buffalo were about the coolest thing I have ever seen.

Chaos in Custer!

Yesterday's buffalo encounter was definitely impressive, but today on the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park had all the elements of a disaster. Lots of cars, even more buffalo, a town, traffic signals. Rush hour at its worst! Buffalo definitely do not abide by traffic lights nor do they yield the right of way to anyone - they just go where they please. Fortunately, the cars weren't in any hurry moving slowly through the gridlock (or should that be hooflock) taking pictures and letting the buffs do their thing.

Then a nasty park ranger in a picnic came through, treated the buffalo badly and urged them out of the road with their bumper - what a party pooper.













Also saw antelope and wild horses along that road, but didn't see what I was hoping to see - elk and big horn sheep. Oh well.























I started the day off more slowly than usual, getting up at about 6:30. Things were a bit damp in the tent from the rain yesterday and the dew overnight, so I hung everything out to dry in the morning sun and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs.

After breakfast, I headed to Sylvan Lake, a beautiful lake in the middle of Custer State Park. Walked around the lake a bit and then took the Sunday Gulch hike. It was about three miles through some very beautiful country. It had about 600 feet of elevation change, with some additional up and down, so I got in some decent climbing training. It wasn't the Grand Canyon and I had to pause several times to catch my breath, but overall it went pretty well and I got some neat pictures, though they never turn out as good as the real thing.





































If the weather permits (and it looks like it won't) I might head back to Mount Rushmore this evening to watch them light up the statues. I've heard that is pretty neat, but right now its starting to rain again and the air has turned downright cold. After Texas though, it feels great. Tomorrow, I am off to Yellowstone Park and another fairly long drive to get there.

Images that Didn't Post Yesterday

Buffalo, Stone Presidents, Windy Caves, and Rain!

The day started off well enough - up with the Sun, ate a quick breakfast and headed off to Mount Rushmore to beat the crowds. Did the simple President's Trail up under the statue and got some decent pictures, but the sky was cloudy and they were doing some maintenance so they had a high wire crossing George and Tom's faces which marred the picture a bit. Too bad they weren't offering zipline rides down from the top - I would have signed up in a heartbeat.

After leaving Rushmore, took a scenic drive down the Iron Mountain road, a windy, hilly 15-20 mph road that was beautiful with several one way bridges and tunnels - amazing that roads can be built through this terrain. After stopping and taking pictures at a few scenic overlooks, the road broke into praire and I was thinking about where I might have to go to see some buffalo when I noticed the car in front of me had stopped in the middle of the road and two girls were sticking out of the sunroof. About then I noticed a decent sized herd of these same buffalo grazing their way down the highway and completely blocking the road. I whipped out my camera and started to take a few pics as they moved closer to me. As they got close, I got back into the car and could have petted them as they walked by, practically rubbing the car. That was certainly the highlight of the day without question. Stone presidents are one thing, but they are not huge and hairy and walking right by me - if they had, they might have gotten top billing on this post, but they didn't, so its all about the buffalo today.

After the buffs passed, I continued on the drive into Custer State Park. About then it started to lightly rain. Today I learned what isn't the first and won't be my last lesson about camping. Regardless of how nice it is when you leave your camp, always put the rainfly on the tent anyway. I didn't and thought I'd better head back and fix that before the rain got too heavy. Things were a bit damp inside the tent but not too bad. Shortly after that, it started to rain pretty hard, so I got there just in time.

I decided to forgo my hike through Custer State Park due to the rain and instead headed to Wind Cave. Of course, as I approached Wind Cave, the rain stopped, but I was committed at that point. Wind Cave was pretty cool, but its a different kind of cave and wasn't formed by water running through it like most caves, so it lacked some of the more colorful and exotic formations, but it was unique and really long, deep and is probably a caver's dream to explore. They believe that of the 193 miles of caves they have mapped, that is probably only 10% of the cave and all of that is crammed into one square mile. Our tour went by the original and only natural opening to the cave. Only the very skinny can get through that, but we did put our hand and face down into the opening to feel the wind blowing out of it. Today it was pretty light, but its been measured at 70mph before. Sometimes it blows in too. The legend is that it was discovered when a cowboy's hat got whipped off his head and sucked into the cave.

As I headed back to Custer, the rain started again pretty heavily, so I decided to head back to camp and try and take a nap - it worked and the tent wasn't too uncomfortable from the rain. After a couple of hours, the rain quit and I ventured out once again to get some food and to upload my pics and post this entry. My air card is pretty spotty here, but the campsite has DSL in their office, so I am here.

Park Rangers at Rushmore
Four dudes in granite. They were supposed to have hands too, but the granite was unsuitable. Pretty amazing how they took a one tenth scale model and with dynamite and jack hammers made something that looks so darned real.

My home for the next eight weeks - looked bigger on the web site, but it will work.
Another fine meal cooked with propane and propane accessories. Hank Hill would be proud!

The Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota

I didn't post anything yesterday - first I had very little connectivity in bustling North Platte, NE, but there wasn't much to report about the trip up - pretty boring drive really, though Nebraska was pretty in an agricultural kind of way.

Today I made the final leg of the journey to the real starting point of the trip, which is South Dakota. I stopped first at Badlands National Park. The Badlands are kind of a moonscape with occasional vegetation. I wouldn't say they are pretty, but they are pretty cool. The formations clearly show different layers of sedimentation, some grayish and some a rusty red. They almost look striped the colorations are so distinct.

I hiked three trails at the Badlands - the Castle and Medicine Root trails are pretty flat and not too exciting, though you walk right by a number of nice formations. I took a wrong turn and also did the Saddle Pass trail, which winds down about 200 feet and was technically pretty challenging, especially without trekking poles (which I later bought a cheap pair at Walmart). After I got to the bottom and looked at their map, I realized my mistake and also that in order to get back to my car, I needed to climb back up that same 200 steep feet, which was not too bad after I got to the top - a little winded and had to pause a couple of times, but I made it. All in all, it was about eight miles. The sky was clear and the sun was hot, but very little humidity, which was nice after hiking in Texas.

After leaving the Badlands, I made the obligatory stop at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. Its a famous drug store that has pictures of signs pointing the way to Wall Drug with the mileage from nearly everywhere in the world, including the South Pole. Pretty much a tourist trap, but I did get a homemade ice cream cone (did I mention it was very hot in the Badlands) and one of their famously free cups of ice water (several actually). I also went across the street to the Badlands Bar and had one beer, which a co-worker had suggested I do.

After leaving Wall, I made a couple of other stops - Cabela's to pick up my bear spray, Walmart for the trekking poles I mentioned earlier and a steak for dinner. I also stopped by Best Buy and returned the second iPod to car stereo transmitter. Bought the first one in Fort Worth, traded it for a different brand in Oklahoma, returned that for a refund in South Dakota. I could never get a good signal, so I'm going to use my ear buds instead.

Last stop was Big Pine Campground in Custer, SD. It's a private campground (all the ones inside the park were full) and it feels a bit like cheating, since it has a shower room and a place to wash dishes, but it should be a good entry for me into the world of camping again. I know down the road I will have sites without these nice facilities.

Tomorrow is Mount Rushmore in the morning and then some hiking later in the day.

I will try and get some pictures posted. My connection is so slow its making that difficult, but I’ll get some uploaded eventually.

Practice Hike a Success - Barely

I ended up going with the group from work on their fourteen mile hike and I'm glad I did as I found out where my limit is as of today and learned some valuable lessons about being prepared.

We started at eight in the morning. I checked the weather forecast before driving out and it called for overcast and rain all morning and into the afternoon. Foolishly, I believed it and left my hat and sunscreen at home - I won't ever do that again.

About eight thirty or nine, it started to rain and poured for about fifteen minutes. Not only soaked, but the trail became pretty muddy too so we had to be careful walking, particularly downhill because the clay gets really slippery.

After it quit raining, it was really very cool and pleasant, so we finished the first half of the hike in three hours and I felt really good, so I kept on the second "half". By then, the sun was out in force and the humidity was terrible being by a lake and having all that standing water around. I could have borrowed sunscreen at that point, but I thought I could tough it out and was so sweaty that it wouldn't stick anyway.

The good news was that I was able to keep up with a bunch of twenty-somethings and I don't think I slowed them down much. I didn't pack a heavy backpack, but I probably started out with twenty points (including water) and by the end it was probably down to 12-15 pounds. The second half also turned out to be much longer in mileage and duration, so instead of finishing by 1:30 or 2, it was 3:30 when we finished, we'd all run out of water and the heat was starting to get to me.

All in all, we covered about 15 miles in a total of seven and a half hours, with a half our break for lunch.

It was definitely hard but it gave me some confidence that I can hike a long way. There was enough up and down that I get some experience with the elevation, though it wasn't a sustained up hill at all. At least it wasn't totally flat. I'd say thirteen miles is a good safe distance for me to start out with. Next time, I will take extra water as well as a hat and sunscreen, regardless of the weather forecast.